Bhubaneswar: Amidst protest by opposition parties, Odisha Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera today presented a Vote-on-Account worth Rs 56,921crore for the first four months of the 2019-20 fiscal while tabling an interim budget of Rs 1.326 lakh crore for the full year of 2019-20 in the Odisha Assembly today.
As tenure of the current assembly is coming to an end on June 11, the new government will seek appropriation for the full financial year 2019-20 after the general elections.
“Keeping in view the requirement of funds for expenditure on payment of salary, pension, interest, old age pension, scholarship for SC and ST students, a sum of Rs 56,921 crore has been proposed in the vote-on-account before the House to defray the expenses during the first four months of the financial year from April to July 2019,” said Behera.
While presenting the interim budget, Behera informed that Odisha has been able to achieve a better economic growth of 8 % which is way more than the national average of 7.1 %. The State government has been successful in doubling the farmers’ income and has launched KALIA scheme, he said.
Behera further informed that the revenue receipt of the 2019-20 fiscal has been worked out at Rs 1, 10,710 crore and the revenue expenditure at Rs 1.02,227 crore. A revenue surplus of Rs 8,433 crore is anticipated at the end of the next fiscal which would be nearly 1.6 % of the GSDP. The estimated fiscal deficit of Rs 16,193 crore would amount to 3 % of the GSDP, the Finance minister said.
Highest of Rs 4,461 crore has been allocated for the recently launched KALIA scheme, followed by Rs 2935 crore for Rural Water Supply - BASUDHA Scheme and Rs 2120 crore for Madhubabu Pension Yojana.
As the State government had drawn money from the Odisha Contingency Fund for KALIA scheme, a provision for it was made in the interim budget, source said. Besides, budget provisions have also been made for implementation of other recently announced state-sponsored schemes.
"It's a pro-farmer, pro-women, pro-SC&ST and development-oriented budget and I am happy that adequate provision is made for KALIA scheme," said CM Naveen Patnaik.
The full budget for the 2019-20 fiscal will be presented by the new government after the upcoming elections.
However, the opposition parties including Congress and BJP members protested the budget and walked out of the Assembly.
Leader of Opposition, Narasingha Mishra alleged that Odisha Government's statements were not based on facts.
"From statements of the finance minister it is clear that the government is only concerned for the upcoming elections," said Mishra.
BJP MLA Rabi Naik said, " We opposed the budget as there is nothing for youths, farmers and overall development of State."
Odisha Congress chief, Niranjan Patnaik said there is nothing new in this interim budget and there is no clear indication for the overall development of the state. It's just an "empty vessel" making a lot of noise.
In a series of tweets, Patnaik wrote, "The great "schemer" govt. has suddenly woken up to the problems of the people of the state and is throwing a volley of schemes when only a few months are left for the election. They have no money to implement these schemes and are diverting money from the contingency fund."